Greetings fellow summoners! I’m Frank, better known around these parts as killercactus. One of my favorite parts of the games I’ve played through the years is the speculation that accompanies a coming release. I just loved to talk with the other players and make some accurate and some wild guesses at what was coming down the pipeline. Now that I’m a playtester for Summoner Wars (which I love doing), that’s the only thing I miss.

Now though, maybe I’ve found a way to kind of scratch that itch, while making those who are like me scratch their skin raw!

To celebrate the new reinforcements in the works, I thought it’d be fun to give everyone a little sneak peek of some of these units in action. Fortunately for those of you who can’t wait to scratch, Colby agreed. Another tester was sporting enough to play the game with me, so without further ado:

Mugglug vs the Demagogue – Reinforced!!

The two most confident summoners square off – only 5 units without summoning stones starting on the board!

The Swamp Orcs started the game aggressively, as is their orcish nature. Mugglug urged his Savager and Shaman forward, both of which killed their respective common targets.

The Damagogue responded by summoning a Zealot and a Cultist and, combining with the Zealot, blew the Savager to dust. The Cultist threw a wild hex at the Shaman which missed, and the Filth built up some magic.

The Shaman continued the magic war by blasting the Cultist with his vinemancy, only to hit an invisible shield, concocted by the Demagogue through the power of his stone. A hunter threw a javelin at the Zealot, which was off the mark. Mugglug began channeling magical power into his stone.

Then, the Demagogue made his move. Next to his magical wall appeared a skinny looking humanoid with a bandaged face, as if he’d been through some ritual. This poor human had been anointed by the Demagogue for battle. At the same time, the Zealot’s body wreathed and cracked. When the mutation was complete, it looked twisted and held a scroll. Then the masked summoner bowed his head and called forth a demon who flew into Mugglug’s lone wall. As the mutant read from the scroll in a strange language, the body of the anointed one seemed to pulsate with power. It fired a blast at Mugglug, but the Summoning Stone allowed the Orc summoner to evade most of the blow. The Cultist fired a hex that found its mark, destroying a Shaman.

After the surprising display of power shown by the demon-worshippers, Mugglug could only try to regroup by building a wall and falling back, building up his magic to retaliate. The mutant and its followers charged forward and surrounded the new wall, starting to beat it down while the mutant still chanted from the scroll.

Mugglug saw his opportunity. His retreat bought him enough time to exercise the demon from the wall and summon forth his new champion, Glurp, to deal with the chanting mutant. Mugglug is often annoyed when he has to summon this monster, but its nothing compared to how his opposition feels while Glurp is mowing down enemies. Glurp crushed the mutant in one swift stroke, while Mugglug attempted to kill the bandaged human, only for the Demagogue to again deflect his blow with a force field.

The masked demon-worshipper had even more surprises in store. To deal with Glurp, he called forth his demonic powers, causing the Cultist to grow tentacles, and the anointed one to grow claws. Both mutants fiercely attacked the Orc Champion, but couldn’t bring him down. Meanwhile, the Demagogue began plotting his next experiment.

Staring at the two mutants, Mugglug decided a beast of his own was needed to combat them. He gazed into his stone and summoned one of the beasts native to his beloved swamps. He pointed to the beast and said “Eat Squiddy.” He then fought to get Glurp’s attention, and grunted “We kill Crabby.” The beast chomped down on the tentacle mutant and destroyed it, but even the two hulking Orc champions couldn’t bring down the clawed mutant.

Chuckling at his luck, the Demagogue called forth a Cultist and muttered an incantation, causing its face to peel back in horror. Glurp had just enough time for his eyes to go wide and mutter “grrr.. Freaky…” before he was clawed and devoured.

Mugglug made use of Glurp’s corpse to grow some vines, and sent forth the beast and his Hunter – who’d been hiding behind walls like a coward the entire battle, to kill the clawed mutant. He then concentrated on the stone, building up more magical power.

Having seen many of his strong mutants absorbed into the power of Mugglug’s stone, the Demagogue had to change his plans. He knew how to deal with a summoner channeling so much power into his stone. He muttered under his breath, and the horrible looking mutant’s body creaked and warped again. The resulting being was one that could feel the power of the Stones. When a Stone tries to absorb a unit’s essence as magic, the Absorbtion Mutant (as the Demagogue named him) could usurp some of that power for the Filth. However, the mutant failed to kill the swamp beast, and the Demagoge had no choice but to continue plotting.

Meanwhile, Mugglug pressed his advantage. He summoned a second champion – Murk. Mugglug grew more vines around Murk, and he used them to strangle the mutant to death while the beast fed on its deformed corpse before Mugglug turned it into more vines.

To combat this threat, the Demagogue fled and built up his magic, waiting for the right moment to strike, just as Mugglug had done earlier.

The Orc was not worried. He summoned forth another new addition to his ranks. As he did so, he felt compelled to yell “and HEEeeeeeeeeeEEEERE’S the CONJURER!” He sent his pair of vinemancers forward with the beast to pressure the Demagogue out of hiding.

Faced with Orcs and Beasts breathing down his neck, the Demagogue prayed to the demons through his stone. He bid them to bring forth….. Her. And they obliged. Her wrath is cold, and Her eyes would be felt. As she materialized, the Orcs could already feel Her eyes looking at them, peering into their mind, body, and soul. The Orc champion stiffened, but seemed to snap out of a reverie, not allowing Her eyes to penetrate him.

When Mugglug felt Her presence, he knew he must work quickly. He animated his vines to ensnare a Zealot protecting the Demagogue, and summoned a Hunter to charge him as Murk and the Beast closed in on the Filth walls, preventing the summoner from bring forth new units to protect him. The Zealot was killed and the Demagogue shrugged off a Hunter’s spear.

The Demagogue, now cornered, showed his resourcefulness. He smirked at the Hunter behind his mask willed its body to be mutated until his face was nothing but a gaping hole waiting to feed on magical power. Her stepped in front of Murk, shielding her summoner from harm, and stared at him until a wound opened in his chest.

Murk couldn’t stand Her presence, so he backed off and the Beast charged into his place. Not afraid of Her, it bit down, severely wounding Her. The other Orcs continued to rip down one of the Filth walls, trying to clear a lane to the one with the white mask. Even after he ran, Murk couldn’t hide from Her eyes. He felt Her terrible gaze again and the chest wound opened even more, but then the beast finished Her. Then the Conjurer began chanting, and the vines that were now threatening to envelop the battlefield came to life. With the help of a Hunter and his animated vines, a Filth wall was ripped down.

The Demagogue knew that the Orcs could now rush without the safety of his wall. He again cast the heretic spell to warp the Hunter’s body – its face peeling back and becoming a copy of the freaky mutant on the battlefield before. He also mutated the sucky-looking mutant again, this time causing his face to expand even more until its entire head became a portal of something like fire. The Demagogue killed the swamp beast, but spores shot into the air and vines immediately began growing from the corpse. The freaky mutant took on Murk, further wounding the champion, and the shifty mutant with a void where his head should’ve been attacked and wounded the Conjurer.

Mugglug, from the safety of the other side of the battlefield, summoned forth another Swamp Beast and a Shaman to deal with the mutants. He also used the power of the stone to ensnare both mutants in vines, holding them to be killed. Murk and the beast destroyed the freaky mutant, and the Conjurer brought more vines to life which it used to kill the Void mutant. With his two mutants gone, the Demagogue could only retreat between his remaining walls and build up the last of his magic. Sensing victory, Mugglug summoned the champion Splack, who trapped the Demagogue between his walls and challenged him single-handedly, while Mugglug grew vines around them and enchanted the vines to protect his Orcs. Splack tried to entangle the Demagogue in vines, but the Stone prevented it.

With the last of his magic, the Demagogue brought the bulging Vomitus to the battlefield, though the vines prevented him from challenging Splack. Mugglug had heard the tales of the damage whatever came out of Vomitus’ mouth could do and how far it could fly, but he commanded Splack to stand his ground. Vomitus ignored the vines and destroyed the Conjurer with his vomit, but the vines protected Splack. While he dueled the Demagogue, Murk and the remaining Orc forces surrounded Vomitus and defeated him, and Splack proved too much for the Demagogue to handle, felling him in single combat.

The Swamp Orcs had won the day, defeating the demon-worshipping Filth, thanks to his new reinforcements. I hope you all enjoyed reading the report. Let the speculation begin!

Posted by Frank BalogFrank Balog is a Summoner Wars playtester.

Comments

It seems that whatever Her's power is, it probably affects Champions, since Murk was severely wounded by it, but the Swamp Beast was unaffected. Conjurers have more than one life. It seems Splack has a vine-growing power that Summoners are immune to. Could the Anointed get additional attack the more mutations are on the battlefield perhaps?

Murk was a tough guy here. The Anointed attacked Mugglug and said that he evaded "most" of the blow, so I presume the Anointed get stronger. Void Mutant is shifty, so durr hurr. Her was awesome, I'm with SR on the Anointed and Her. I feel stupid with pronouns now.

Conjurers animate walls, anointed are both mutateable and good attackers (when aided by the scroll), Vomitus has good range, Her can maybe attack people she already wounded easier/farther, Mugglug's annoyance at Glurp means high cost or negative effect.

In all seriousness, we weren't really playing hardcore to win here.... I just wanted us to get as many new units as possible onto the battlefield. I was surprised at how many we were actually able to summon - all of them except poor Rocky, which is a little sad to me since he was the mutant I tried to play the most during testing.

Bah, I was hoping the Filth would win but halfway it wouldn't seem so by the way the Filth player was throwing mutants away at the SO. Exchanging Mutant units with the opponent is bad play for the Filth, but hey, its a preview.

Very cool. I'm really looking forward to seeing details on the Swamp Orc champions. From what you said they all seem exciting, but I have no idea what they do beyond "something involving Vine Walls." Thanks for putting this together KC.

@glenn, like I said, we were really just trying to get new stuff down, but it actually wasn't like that at all. Horror was only killed because of Ensnare, Loudmouth and Sucky did their jobs very well, and Filth made a great play with Squiddy attacking through Crabby. It's tough against the SO when they have so many points to summon from to get at the mutants.